DEMOCRATIC PARTY NOMINATES ROOSEVELT FOR THE FOURTH TIME
Franklin Delano Roosevelt for President!
Address by President Roosevelt Accepting the Democratic Nomination
July 20, 1944, 8:20 p.m. PWT
Delivered from a Pacific Coast naval base
Broadcast audio:
Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen of the Convention, my friends:
I have already indicated to you why I accept the nomination that you have offered me – in spite of my desire to retire to the quiet of private life.
You in this Convention are aware of what I have sought to gain for the nation, and you have asked me to continue.
It seems wholly likely that within the next four years our Armed Forces, and those of our allies, will have gained a complete victory over Germany and Japan, sooner or later, and that the world once more will be at peace – under a system, we hope that will prevent a new world war. In an event, whenever that time comes, new hands will then have full opportunity to realize the ideals which we seek.
In the last three elections, the people of the United States have transcended party affiliation. Not only Democrats but also forward-looking Republicans and millions of independent voters have turned to progressive leadership – a leadership which has sought consistently – and with fair success – to advance the lot of the average American citizen who had been so forgotten during the period after the last war. I am confident that they will continue to look to that same kind of liberalism to build our safer economy for the future.
I am sure that you will understand me when I say that my decision, expressed to you formally tonight, is based solely on a sense of obligation to serve if called upon to do so by the people of the United States.
I shall not campaign, in the usual sense, for the office. In these days of tragic sorrow, I do not consider it fitting. And besides, in these days of global warfare, I shall not be able to find the time. I shall, however, feel free to report to the people the facts about matters of concern to them and especially to correct any misrepresentations.
During the past few days, I have been coming across the whole width of the continent, to a naval base where I am speaking to you now from the train.
As I was crossing the fertile lands and the wide plains and the Great Divide, I could not fail to think of the new relationship between the people of our farms and cities and villages and the people of the rest of the world overseas – on the islands of the Pacific, in the Far East, and in the other Americas, in Britain and Normandy and Germany and Poland and Russia itself.
For Oklahoma and California, for example, are becoming a part of all these distant spots as greatly as Massachusetts and Virginia were a part of the European picture in 1778. Today, Oklahoma and California are being defended in Normandy and on Saipan; and they must be defended there – for what happens in Normandy and Saipan vitally affects the security and wellbeing of every human being in Oklahoma and California.
Mankind changes the scope and the breadth of its thought and vision slowly indeed. In the days of the Roman Empire eyes were focused on Europe and the Mediterranean area. The civilization in the Far East was barely known. The American continents were unheard of.
And even after the people of Europe began to spill over to other continents, the people of North America in Colonial days knew only their Atlantic seaboard and a tiny portion of the other Americas, and they turned mostly for trade and international relationship to Europe. Africa, at that time, was considered only as the provider of human chattels. Asia was essentially unknown to our ancestors.
During the 19th century, during that era of development and expansion on this continent, we felt a natural isolation – geographic, economic, and political – an isolation from the vast world which lay overseas.
Not until this generation – roughly this century – have people here and elsewhere been compelled more and more to widen the orbit of their vision to include every part of the world. Yes, it has been a wrench perhaps – but a very necessary one.
It is good that we are all getting that broader vision. For we shall need it after the war. The isolationists and the ostriches who plagued our thinking before Pearl Harbor are becoming slowly extinct. The American people now know that all nations of the world – large and small – will have to play their appropriate part in keeping the peace by force, and in deciding peacefully the disputes which might lead to war.
We all know how truly the world has become one – that if Germany and Japan, for example, were to come through this war with their philosophies established and their armies intact, our own grandchildren would again have to be fighting in their day for their liberties and their lives.
Someday soon we shall all be able to fly to any other part of the world within 24 hours. Oceans will no longer figure as greatly in our physical defense as they have in the past. For our own safety and for our own economic good, therefore – if for no other reason – we must take a leading part in the maintenance of peace and in the increase of trade among all the nations of the world.
And that is why your government for many, many months has been laying plans, and studying the problems of the near future – preparing itself to act so that the people of the United States may not suffer hardships after the war, may continue constantly to improve their standards, and may join with other nations in doing the same. There are even now working toward that end, the best staff in all our history – men and women of all parties and from every part of the nation. I realize that planning is a word which in some places brings forth sneers. But, for example, before our entry into the war it was planning, which made possible the magnificent organization and equipment of the Army and Navy of the United States which are fighting for us and for our civilization today.
Improvement through planning is the order of the day. Even military affairs, things do not stand still. An army or a navy trained and equipped and fighting according to a 1932 model would not have been a safe reliance in 1944. And if we are to progress in our civilization, improvement is necessary in other fields – in the physical things that are a part of our daily lives, and also in the concepts of social justice at home and abroad.
I am now at this naval base in the performance of my duties under the Constitution. The war waits for no elections. Decisions must be made – plans must be laid – strategy must be carried out. They do not concern merely a party or a group. They will affect the daily lives of Americans for generations to come.
What is the job before us in 1944? First, to win the war – to win the war fast, to win it overpoweringly. Second, to form worldwide international organizations, and to arrange to use the armed forces of the sovereign nations of the world to make another war impossible within the foreseeable future. And third, to build an economy for our returning veterans and for all Americans – which will provide employment and provide decent standards of living.
The people of the United States will decide this fall whether they wish to turn over this 1944 job – this worldwide job – to inexperienced or immature hands, to those who opposed Lend-Lease and international cooperation against the forces of aggression and tyranny, until they could read the polls of popular sentiment; or whether they wish to leave it to those who saw the danger from abroad, who met it head-on, and who now have seized the offensive and carried the war to its present stages of success – to those who, by international conferences and united actions have begun to build that kind of common understanding and cooperative experience which will be so necessary in the world to come.
They will also decide, these people of ours, whether they will entrust the task of postwar reconversion to those who offered the veterans of the last war breadlines and apple-selling and who finally led the American people down to the abyss of 1932; or whether they will leave it to those who rescued American business, agriculture, industry, finance, and labor in 1933, and who have already planned and put through much legislation to help our veterans resume their normal occupations in a well-ordered reconversion process.
They will not decide these questions by reading glowing words or platform pledges – the mouthings of those who are willing to promise anything and everything – contradictions, inconsistencies, impossibilities – anything which might snare a few votes here and a few votes there.
They will decide on the record – the record written on the seas, on the land, and in the skies.
They will decide on the record of our domestic accomplishments in recovery and reform since March 4, 1933.
And they will decide on the record of our war production and food production – unparalleled in all history, in spite of the doubts and sneers of those in high places who said it cannot be done.
They will decide on the record of the International Food Conference, of UNRRA, of the International Labor Conference, of the International Education Conference, of the International Monetary Conference.
And they will decide on the record written in the Atlantic Charter, at Casablanca, at Cairo, at Moscow, and at Tehran.
We have made mistakes. Who has not?
Things will not always be perfect. Are they ever perfect, in human affairs?
But the objective at home and abroad has always been clear before us. Constantly, we have made steady, sure progress toward that objective. The record is plain and unmistakable as to that – a record for everyone to read.
The greatest wartime President in our history, after a wartime election which he called the “most reliable indication of public purpose in this country,” set the goal for the United States, a goal in terms as applicable today as they were in 1865 – terms which the human mind cannot improve “with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan – to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations.”
Völkischer Beobachter (July 21, 1944)
Die neue Feldschlacht im Westen:
Beginn des zweiten Invasionsabschnittes
Feindliche Generaloffensive an allen Fronten
vb. Wien, 20. Juli –
Seit 48 Stunden tobt im Raume von Caen eine Feldschlacht, die trotz ihrer vorläufigen örtlichen Begrenzung als der Beginn des zweiten großen Abschnittes der Invasion betrachtet werden darf.
Der Feind hat am 18. Juli – genau sechs Wochen nach seiner Landung auf französischem Boden – zum Durchbruch aus der Enge des Landekopfes in der Normandie angesetzt. Damit ist auch die Schlacht im Westen in das Stadium wichtiger Entscheidungen gerückt und die Generaloffensive der Feinde Europas auf allen vier Fronten entbrannt. Dafür zeugen nicht nur die militärischen Vorgänge im Westen, Osten und Süden, sondern auch die neue weiträumige Bomberoffensive, die am gestrigen Mittwoch große Gebiete Süddeutschlands heimgesucht hat.
Tage und Wochen höchster Spannung, größter Anstrengungen und ernstester Bewährung stehen Front und Heimat bevor. Wehrmacht und Volk sehen ihnen mit eiserner Entschlossenheit und unbeirrbarer Zuversicht entgegen. Alle Anstrengungen, die der westliche Feind seit dem 6. Juni in seinem normannischen Landekopf unternommen hatte, gehorchten zwei einander ablösenden Gesetzen: Nach dem ursprünglichen Invasionsplane sollten schon in den ersten Tagen des gewaltigen, seit zwei Jahren mit Hilfe der gesamten plutokratischen Kriegsindustrie vorbereiteten Angriffes die Häfen Cherbourg und Le Havre genommen und mit Hilfe starker Luftlandeverbände eine breite und tiefe Ausfallstellung in der Normandie gewonnen werden.
Dieses Programm, für das die riesigen Luftflotten und Seestreitkräfte der USA und Britanniens zur Verfügung standen, ist sowohl an der Widerstandskraft der örtlichen Befestigungen des Atlantikwalls wie an der Zähigkeit der im Landeraum stehenden schwachen deutschen Verbände gescheitert.
Sobald diese Tatsache feststand, entschloss sich die feindliche Führung unter Verzicht auf eine Änderung ihres taktischen Planes, durch sture und mühselige Kleinarbeit das zu erreichen, was im ersten großen Wurf nicht gelungen war: Sie pumpte den Landekopf unaufhörlich mit Truppen und Material voll, säuberte in wochenlangem Ringen unter schweren Verlusten die Halbinsel von Cherbourg und drang ohne Rücksicht auf die Opfer bis zu den immer noch küstennahen Städten Saint-Lô und Caen durch, um halbwegs brauchbare Ausgangsstellungen für die eigentliche Offensive zu gewinnen. Was nach dem ursprünglichen Plan in drei Tagen geschafft werden sollte, ist nun in sechs Wochen notdürftig bewältigt worden. Und nicht einmal das mit taktischer Geschicklichkeit, sondern ausschließlich durch• den Einsatz immer neuer Materialmassen. Bombengeschwader, Schiffsgeschütze und Artilleriemassen waren das Kennzeichen dieser ganzen ersten Phase der Schlacht um Frankreich.
Am Dienstag, den 18. Juli, fühlten sich nun Eisenhower und Montgomery endlich stark genug, den deutschen Verteidigern der Normandie die Feldschlacht anzubieten: Während die Amerikaner im Westabschnitt des Schlachtfeldes gegen den Trümmerhaufen von Saint-Lô antraten, brachen die Briten – wie gewöhnlich mit Kanadiern in vorderster Linie – aus ihrem kleinen Brückenkopf östlich der Orne, nach stundenlangem Trommelfeuer von Bomben und Granaten, wiederum von der schwersten Schiffsartillerie unterstützt, heraus, um in südlicher Richtung die von Caen nach Westen und Südwesten, das heißt nach Lisieux und Falaise führenden Straßen zu gewinnen. Neben dem Durchbruch „ins Freie“ verbanden sie damit augenscheinlich die taktische Absicht, die noch im Südteil von Caen stehenden, an das Ufer der Orne angelehnten deutschen Verbände abzuschneiden, nachdem sie in den Vortagen das Dorf Maltot am Westufer der Orne besetzt und damit die Flanke jener deutschen Verbände gewonnen hatten.
Schon heute, 48 Stunden nach Beginn der Operation, kann festgestellt werden, daß dieser taktische Nebenzweck nicht erreicht worden ist: die bis Cagny, an der Straße Caen–Lisieux durchgebrochenen britischen Panzerkräfte fanden bei ihrem Versuch, nach Westen einzuschwenken und das Orneufer gegenüber von Maltot zu erreichen, schon in den Orten Grentheville und Soliers entschlossenen Widerstand. Auch die auf den östlichen Flügel des Angriffsraumes angesetzten Feindstöße gegen Sannerville und Troarn blieben ergebnislos. Desgleichen ließ sich die deutsche Führung durch feindliche Ablenkungsmanöver östlich der Orne im alten Kampfraum von Tilly und Juvigny nicht beirren.
Das Scheitern dieses Einschließungsmanövers beweist aufs Neue die geringen taktischen Fähigkeiten der anglo-amerikanischen Führung, selbst in Stellen, wo ihr eine gewaltige materielle Überlegenheit Hilfe leistet und vielleicht sogar das Überraschungsmoment zugutegekommen ist, denn der Entschluss Montgomerys, östlich der Orne anzugreifen, nachdem er sich in den Vorwochen unablässig und unter größtem Aufwand bemüht hatte, südwestlich Caen die deutsche Verteidigung zu durchstoßen, kam mindestens für die anglo-amerikanische Presse ganz unerwartet. Es bleibt abzuwarten, ob und in welcher Grade sich nun deren rosige Hoffnungen auf einen geradlinigen Vormarsch der motorisierten Feindverbände erfüllen werden.
Die Kriegsberichterstattung des Gegners tut sich viel darauf zugute, daß die beiden oben genannten, nach Südwesten und Westen führenden Heerstraßen durch „offenes Gelände“ und „freie Ebenen“ liefen und der Panzerkrieg damit endlich aus dem tückischen Hecken- und Gartengelände herauskäme, das durch die glänzenden Eigenschaften des deutschen Einzelkämpfers einem wahren Todesfalle für Briten und Yankees geworden ist.
Die Wirklichkeit sieht etwas anders aus. Es ist zwar richtig, daß die genannten Straßen teilweise durch etwas offeneres, welliges Gelände führen, wie es auch an anderen Stellen der Normandie mitunter angetroffen werden kann. Dazwischen befinden sich aber immer wieder Gebiete mit jenem für die dortige Landschaft typischen Gemisch kleiner Weiler, Dörfer und Einzelhöfe, mit unzähligen dicht umbuchten Garten- und Feldstücken, bewachsenen Hohlwegen und kleinen Bachläufen, das dem Panzerkrieg viel geringere Möglichkeiten bietet, als sie die Briten und US-Amerikaner aus ihren bisherigen Kriegserfahrungen in Afrika und Italien gewohnt waren. Dieser Umstand hemmt in einem gewissen Grad auch die Wirksamkeit der zahlenmäßig weit überlegenen feindlichen Luftwaffe, da er ausgezeichnete Möglichkeiten Zur Deckung gegen Fliegersicht bietet.
Es ist kaum anzunehmen, daß der Durchbruchsversuch östlich der Orne die gesamte im Landekopf aufgestaute Offensivkraft des Feindes zur Geltung bringen wird. Allein schon der Wunsch, die Bildung eines deutschen Gegenschwerpunkts in diesem Raum zu verhindern, dürfte die feindliche Führung veranlassen, noch/an anderen Stellen den „Weg ins Freie“ zu suchen. Ob solche weiteren Stöße westlich des Flusses, wo die seit Wochen heiß umkämpfte Höhe 112 bei Gavrus-Baron immer noch in deutscher Hand ist, oder bei Caumont oder bei Saint-Lô erfolgen werden, wissen wir nicht. Auch das strategische Ziel der Offensive im Westen ist noch nicht sichtbar.
Man muß auch mit der Möglichkeit, daß der Feind einen neuen Einbruch in den Atlantikwall versuchen wird, sei es, um die Halbinsel der Bretagne von Westen und von der Normandie her abzuschneiden, sei es, um das Tal der Seine von Westen und Norden her gleichzeitig zu erreichen und damit Paris in Reichweite zu bringen. Es ist aber auch müssig, sich heute über solche Möglichkeiten den Kopf zu zerbrechen.
Versinkende Hoffnungen in England
Es ist außerordentlich lehrreich, sich den Grund eines in England aufkommenden Pessimismus, nämlich die Widersprüche der englisch-amerikanischen Publizistik über den Stand der Invasionsschlacht und über die allgemeine Kriegslage vor Augen zu halten.
Während beispielsweise die New York Times versichert: „Jedes Wort, das aus Deutschland herauskommt, zeigt den sich vollziehenden Zusammenbruch des deutschen Volkes,“ veröffentlicht die konservative Daily Mail an der Spitze ihrer Ausgabe eine Meldung ihres Genfer Korrespondenten, in der es heißt: Obgleich das deutsche Volk unter größter Anspannung stehe, mache das Reich in seiner Gesamtheit den Eindruck, als ob der Führer noch Trümpfe ausspielen werde. Einige seien der Ansicht, daß eine weitere Geheimwaffe in Vorbereitung sei. Andere wiederum neigten zu dem Glauben, daß Deutschland völlig neuartige Kriegsmethoden anwenden werde.
Was auch immer der Grund des deutschen Optimismus sein möge, schreibt Daily Mail im offenen Gegensatz zu der zitierten amerikanischen Zeitung, bestehe der Gesamteindruck, daß Deutschland noch etwas Ungewöhnliches unternehmen könne.
Hatte der amerikanische Luftgeneral Arnold schon im Jänner versichert, Deutschlands Kriegsindustrien seien ausradiert und produktionsunfähig und damit die Deutschen weit unterlegen, so können heute die erstaunten Anglo-Amerikaner in fast allen Normandie Reportagen ihrer Kriegsberichter lesen, daß die deutschen Waffen besser als die anglo-amerikanischen sind.
Daily Sketch unterstreicht in einem langen Artikel die überlegene Qualität des sogenannten kleinen Kriegsgeräts der deutschen Wehrmacht, wie Maschinengewehre, Minenwerfer, Maschinenpistolen, Handgranaten und panzerbrechende Mittel. Über unsere Panzer und Panzerabwehrkanonen schreibt der englische Kriegsberichter Buckly im Daily Telegraph:
Die deutsche Abwehrkanone ist das beste existierende Antitankgeschütz der Welt. Selbst unser 17-Pfünder ist kein geeigneter Gegner. Der „Panther“ ist ebenfalls der beste und vielseitigste Panzer, der heute in Westeuropa kämpft. Der „Tiger“ mit einem noch schwereren Geschütz und seiner Panzerung bildet auch ein tödliches Hindernis für unsere leichter gepanzerten und weniger schwer bestückten Tanks. Von Alamein bis Italien bewahrten wir im „General-Sherman-Panzer“ den wahrscheinlich besten und vielseitigsten Kampfwagen in der Schlacht. Nun ist die Lage eine andere.
Ähnliche Superlative finden wir in der Beurteilung der deutschen Artillerie in den Frontberichten der Daily Mail und im News Chronicle, der den Feuervorhang der deutschen Mörser „tödlich und undurchdringlich und von erschreckender Genauigkeit“ findet, über die deutsche Luftwaffe aber urteilt der US-Kriegsberichter Reynold, die Alliierten besäßen nicht ein einziges Flugzeug, das sich qualitativ mit der deutschen „Focke-Wulff 200“ und den meisten deutschen Jägern vergleichen ließe.
Auch ohne „V1“ und das neue Kampfmittel der Kriegsmarine, über. welches in England ein so gewaltiges Rätselraten entstanden war, besteht also effektiv eine qualitative deutsche Waffenüberlegenheit, die selbst vom Gegner eingestanden werden muß. Dies widerspricht aber völlig allen Behauptungen über die Wirkung der Bombenteppiche der Terrorflieger auf das deutsche Erzeugungspotential und bedeutet für die englischen Massen das Hinschwinden ihrer größten Illusionen.
Das gleiche gilt von der Einschätzung des deutschen Soldaten durch den Feind. Das mokante Lächeln über „Hitlers Kriegsbaby“ ist den Anglo-Amerikanern völlig vergangen. Nun unterstreichen sie den Fanatismus, die Härte und Kampfgeübtheit und die für sie geradezu unwahrscheinliche Tapferkeit der Soldatengeneration, die durch die Reihen der HJ ging. Auch die Hoffnung auf eine überlegene Strategie der Alliierten verschwindet bereits, da es Eisenhower, Bradley und Montgomery selbst nach wochenlangen Kämpfen noch immer nicht gelungen ist, aus dem Brückenkopf herauszukommen.
Nachdem der bekannte amerikanische Militärschriftsteller Hanson Baldwin nach einem Besuch in der Normandie Bedenken über die alliierte Strategie geäußert hat, erklärt nun der Kriegsberichter Buckly im Daily Telegraph:
Vielleicht steckt hinter all diesem Treiben ein Meisterplan unserer Generale. Ich vermag jedoch beim besten Willen nicht die geringsten Anzeichen dafür zu sehen.
Ist es ein Wunder, daß angesichts derartiger Widersprüche, torpedierter Hoffnungen und der späten Anerkennung der Überlegenheit des deutschen Soldaten, seiner Waffen und seiner Führung die Briten sich über die Lage an der Invasionsfront keinerlei Illusionen mehr hingeben, sich fragen, wozu sie dem zweiten Blitz ausgesetzt werden müssen und Stimmungen verfallen, die alles andere, nur keine Siegeszuversicht bedeuten.
Innsbrucker Nachrichten (July 21, 1944)
Die harten kämpfe an der Ostfront
In der Normandie 200 Feindpanzer in zwei Tagen vernichtet – 84 viermotorige Bomber beim Einstiegen ins Reich abgeschossen
dnb. Aus dem Führerhauptquartier, 21. Juli –
Das Oberkommando der Wehrmacht gibt bekannt:
Südöstlich und südlich Caen setzte der Feind seine Angriffe mit stärkeren Infanterie- und Panzerkräften fort, ohne daß er wesentlichen Geländegewinn erzielen konnte. Auch im Raum nordwestlich Saint-Lô zerschlugen unsere Truppen alle feindlichen Angriffsgruppen. Bei den Kämpfen am 18. und 19. Juli wurden in der Normandie 200 feindliche Panzer abgeschossen.
Kampfflugzeuge versenkten im Seegebiet westlich Brest einen feindlichen Zerstörer und beschädigten zwei weitere schwer.
Bei Säuberungsunternehmen im französischen Raum wurden wiederum 285 Terroristen im Kampf niedergemacht.
Schweres „V1“-Vergeltungsfeuer liegt weiterhin auf dem Großraum von London.
In Italien fanden gestern größere Kampfhandlungen nur im adriatischen Küstenabschnitt statt, wo der Feind geringfügige Bodengewinne erzielen konnte. An der übrigen Front führte der Gegner an vielen Stellen örtliche Angriffe, die erfolglos blieben.
Die 16. SS-Panzergrenadierdivision „Reichsführer-SS“ hat sich unter Führung des SS-Gruppenführers und Generalleutnants der Waffen-SS Simon bei den schweren Kämpfen an der Ligurischen Küste durch besondere Standhaftigkeit und Tapferkeit ausgezeichnet.
Torpedoboote beschädigten im Golf von Genua zwei britische Schnellboote.
Im Osten dauern die Kämpfe im Raum von Lemberg und am oberen Bug mit unverminderter Heftigkeit an. Unsere Divisionen leisteten den Sowjets weiterhin zähen Widerstand und fügten ihnen hohe Verluste zu. Allein eine Panzergrenadierdivision schoss dort in den letzten Tagen 101 feindliche Panzer ab.
Nördlich Brest-Litowsk warfen Truppen des Heeres und der Waffen-SS die Bolschewisten im Gegenangriff zurück. Mehrere Angriffsspitzen des Feindes wurden eingeschlossen und vernichtet, östlich Bialystok brach der Gegner in unsere Stellungen ein. Erbitterte Kämpfe sind hier im Gange. Nordwestlich Grodno wurden sowjetische Kampfgruppen im Gegenangriff geworfen.
An der Straße Kauen–Dünaburg sowie zwischen Dünaburg und Peipussee griffen die Bolschewisten mit starker Panzer- und Schlachtfliegerunterstützung an zahlreichen Stellen an. Sie wurden unter Abschuß einer großen Anzahl von Panzern abgewiesen oder aufgefangen.
Im Nordabschnitt haben sich die schlesische 255. Infanteriedivision unter Führung von Generalleutnant Melzer und das Grenadierregiment 32 unter Oberst von Werder durch besondere Tapferkeit ausgezeichnet.
Schlachtfliegergeschwader versprengten sowjetische Panzerverbände und Nachschubkolonnen. 58 feindliche Panzer und über 500 Fahrzeuge wurden vernichtet. In Luftkämpfen verlor der Feind 55 Flugzeuge.
Wachfahrzeuge der Kriegsmarine schossen über dem Finnischen Meerbusen 5 sowjetische Bomber ab.
Starke deutsche Kampffliegerverbände führten auch in der vergangenen Nacht schwere Angriffe gegen die Nachschubbahnhöfe Minsk und Molodetschno.
Nordamerikanische Bomberverbände griffen von Süden und Westen Orte in West-, Südwest- und Mitteldeutschland an. Besonders in Friedrichshafen, Wetzlar und Leipzig entstanden Schäden und Personenverluste. Durch Luftverteidigungskräfte wurden 47 feindliche Flugzeuge, darunter 45 viermotorige Bomber, abgeschossen.
In der Nacht griff ein britischer Verband Orte im rheinisch-westfälischen Gebiet an. Störflugzeuge warfen außerdem Bomben auf das Stadtgebiet von Hamburg. 39 viermotorige Bomber wurden dabei zum Absturz gebracht.
Schnelle deutsche Kampfflugzeuge griffen Ziele in Südostengland an.
Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Force (July 21, 1944)
Communiqué No. 91
Attacking from the ridge north of SAINT-ANDRÉ-SUR-ORNE, Allied infantry have captured the village. Between there and BOURGUÉBUS we have extended our hold on the high ground from the river ORNE to the vicinity of VERRIERS.
Air operations over the immediate battle area yesterday were limited by poor visibility.
A strong force of heavy bombers, nine of which are missing, made an accurate and concentrated attack last night on the railway yards at COURTRAI, in BELGIUM.
Communiqué No. 92
Allied troops yesterday continued the advance south of SAINT-ANDRÉ-SUR-ORNE against heavy enemy resistance, which developed into an enemy counterattack near SAINT-MARTIN-DE-FONTENAY. This counterattack, which was supported by armor, was repulsed with loss to the enemy.
In the area east of CAUMONT, our troops have made a slight advance.
Allied forces in the western sector have made small local gains north of PÉRIERS and along the PÉRIERS–SAINT-LÔ road south of REMILLY-SUR-LOZON. An enemy counterattack near RAIDS was repulsed.
Bad weather severely restricted air activity this morning.
Communiqué No. 93
THERE IS NOTHING TO REPORT
U.S. Navy Department (July 21, 1944)
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 82
U.S. Marines and Army assault troops established beachheads on Guam Island on July 20 (West Longitude Date) with the support of carrier aircraft and surface combat units of the Fifth Fleet. Enemy defenses are being heavily bombed and shelled at close range.
Amphibious operations against Guam Island are being directed by RAdm. Richard L. Conolly, USN.
Expeditionary troops are commanded by Maj. Gen. Roy S. Geiger, USMC, Commanding General, Third Amphibious Corps.
The landings on Guam are continuing against moderate ground opposition.
CINCPAC Communiqué No. 83
Good beachheads have been secured on Guam Island by Marines and Army troops. Additional troops are being landed against light initial enemy resistance. The troops advancing inland are meeting increasing resistance in some sectors.
On July 19 (West Longitude Date), 627 tons of bombs and 147 rockets were expended in attacks on Guam by carrier aircraft. Naval gunfire and aerial bombing were employed in support of the assault troops up to the moment of landing, and remaining enemy artillery batteries are being neutralized by shelling and bombing. Preliminary estimates indicate that our casualties are moderate.
Liberator search planes of Group One, Fleet Air Wing Two, bombed Hahajima and Chichijima in the Bonin Islands and Iwo Jima in the Volcano Islands on July 19 (West Longitude Date). At Iwo Jima, the airfield and adjacent installations were hit. At Chichijima, an enemy destroyer was bombed. Anti‑aircraft fire ranged from moderate to intense. One of our planes was damaged but all returned.
The Pittsburgh Press (July 21, 1944)
YANKS ASHORE ON GUAM
Marines, Army storm 1st U.S. island seized by Japs in this war
Invaders meet moderate opposition after 17-day air and sea bombardment of foe
By Frank Tremaine, United Press staff writer
…
Rommel’s tanks fall back as Allies seize six towns
Rain stops big-scale action in Normandy; foe retreats to escape encirclement
By Virgil Pinkley, United Press staff writer
SHAEF, London, England –
British and U.S. troops plunged ahead through six villages today despite a downpour which drowned out big-scale action on the Normandy front, and German armor was reported pulling back from the nose of the breakthrough salient southeast of Caen under an encirclement threat.
Canadian troops drove forward a few hundred years from Saint-André-sur-Odon to capture the neighboring village of Saint-Martin-de-Fontenay a little over four miles south of Caen. Five villages scattered along the British and American fronts had been taken earlier.
Both Allied and German troops soaked miserably in their slit trenches while a 36-hour downpour continued.
Canadians stop attack
The Germans threw in a sharp counterthrust against the Canadian front below Caen, but were turned back.
To the west, British forces slogged ahead 1,000 yards south of the Caumont–Tilly-sur-Seulles road.
A United Press dispatch from the Caen front reported that the battle “is still going well” with the definite failure of the German counterattack, and “it is now safe to say that the Allied offensive is over the hump.”
As Rommel pulled back his armor from the plains southeast of Caen to avoid the threat from strengthened British positions on either side, the Germans depended mainly on their anti-tank and other fortifications to stem the British push, and only short-lived clashes of armor were reported.
The battle of Troarn on the left flank of the Caen pocket continued into its second day, with British assault forces fighting ahead from the captured rail station on the edge of the town.
On the left flank, other British forces were fighting street battles in Évrecy, southwest of Caen, and the village of Bougy, a mile and a half to the northwest. Saint-André-sur-Orne was captured yesterday, clearing the bank of the river four miles due south of Caen, and to the west a drive more than four miles below Tilly-sur-Seulles overran the village of Monts.
U.S. forces closing in on Périers, central base of the German defenses on the 1st Army front, captured Sèves (two and a half miles north of Périers), Raids (on the Carentan–Périers highway four miles to the north), and Le Mesnil-Eury (eight miles southeast of Périers on the Saint-Lô highway).
Altogether the Allied armies scored gains or pinched off German pockets in 13 sectors, most of them line-straightening operations along a 90-mile fighting front.
The new advances carried British troops five miles due south of Caen along both banks of the Orne, and at most places they were less than a mile apart on either side of the river.
The Channel was lashed by a storm, which, with the rain in the fighting areas, almost completely halted aerial support for the British and U.S. troops.
Friday, July 21 12:30 p.m.: Selection of vice-presidential candidate 9:15 p.m.: Final session – Adoption of resolutions of thanks to the host city
Wallace-Truman race a tossup as dozen hopefuls are named
Missouri Senator claims 600 first-ballot votes as New York swings to him
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer
Chicago Stadium, Chicago, Illinois –
Strong-lunged party orators placed a dozen or so vice-presidential candidates in nomination at the Democratic National Convention today while friends of Henry A. Wallace and Senator Harry S. Truman hastily canvassed delegations for first-ballot votes.
The fight for a place on the ticket as President Roosevelt’s 1944 running mate centered around the larger delegations as the New York group, with 96 votes to cast adopted a resolution favoring the Missouri Senator.
By midday, several names had been placed in nomination. The first was Senator John H. Bankhead (D-AL), who was named by Senator Lister Hill a few minutes after the roll call started. The second was Senator Harry S. Truman (D-MO) whose name was placed in nomination by Senator Bennett C. Clark when Arizona yielded to Missouri amid a chorus of boos from Wallace supporters.
The third name placed in nomination was that of Senator Joseph C. O’Mahoney (D-WY) who was named by Wyoming Governor Lester C. Hunt.
After Mr. Hunt’s speech, delegate Martin V. Coffey of Ohio made his seconding speech for Senator Truman, although the poll had shown more Wallace than Truman voted in the delegation.
Mitchell nominates Wallace
Iowa’s former Chief Justice, Richard F. Mitchell of Fort Dodge, made the nominating speech for Mr. Wallace.
Mrs. Emma Guffey Miller, Democratic committeewoman from Pennsylvania, saying. “I guess I’m what the Republican candidate Thomas E. Dewey would call a tired old woman,” seconded the nomination of Mr. Wallace.
“Mr. Wallace made that office what the Founding Fathers intended, ‘First assistant to the President,’” Mr. Mitchell told the Convention today in his speech to renominate his fellow Iowan.
‘Did not sit by’
Mr. Wallace deserves renomination, he said, because “the Democratic Party does not give the Vice Presidency as a consolation prize,” but to a man who sees clearly his role as a leader and a man of action.
Mr. Mitchell said:
He [Wallace] did not sit idly by and let his Commander-in-Chief carry the whole burden of war forced upon us by a treacherous foe. No, instead he became the special messenger of the President, taking the American way of life to the peoples of other countries.
When the name of Vice President Wallace went into nomination, the convention raised its banners in a crazy dance and ignored Chairman Samuel Jackson. Three big white balloons carried aloft the sign, “the People Want Wallace.”
Band strikes up
Wallace signs blossomed all over the floor, in the balcony, and in the halls. The band struck up “Iowa, Where the Tall Corn Grows” and the marchers made more noise for Mr. Wallace than they did yesterday for President Roosevelt.
Four years ago, when Mr. Wallace was nominated at Mr. Roosevelt’s insistence, the angry convention gave him no chance to make the acceptance speech he had prepared. The demonstration lasted 11 minutes.
‘Not going to Munich’
Georgia Governor Ellis Arnall, seconding the nomination of Vice President Henry A. Wallace, declared today that this is not the time for compromise and that the Democratic Party is not going to Munich to appease those who abhor its policies.
Mr. Arnall said:
The enemies of Franklin Roosevelt, unable today to assail the President, have sought through vicious attacks upon his friend and comrade to weaken the forces of Democratic liberalism.
Mr. Wallace, he said, had been true to the policies and the ideals that saved America from chaos in 1933 and he has been faithful to the man whom Americans in three elections have chosen as President.
Defends farm policies
Mr. Arnall defended the Vice President against criticism that he is a dreamer, a visionary, an idealist. These are not damning words, he said, because “where there is no vision, the people perish.”
Mr. Arnall said Mr. Wallace’s farm policies had restored to usefulness 30 million acres of land, had doubled the cash income of farmers, and had provided the food and raw materials with which we are winning the war.
Repudiation of Mr. Wallace, Mr. Arnall said, would be a rejection of the party’s domestic policies which averted calamity in America and restored prosperity.
Mayor Edward J. Kelly, on behalf of the Illinois delegation, nominated Senator Scott W. Lucas (D-IL).
Truman claims 600 votes
Senator Truman’s aides said he had been promised Massachusetts’ 34 first-ballot votes, bringing to 600 the total they claim have been pledged to the Missourian. A “good chunk” of Illinois’ votes were also pledged for Truman, but on the second ballot.
With Mr. Roosevelt nominated for a fourth term, it remained for the delegates to settle a contest between the left and right wings of the New Deal-Democratic Party and either renominate Mr. Wallace or retire him to Iowa.
Wallace claims of strength were voiced by Harold Young, the Vice President’s secretary and campaign manager, who said that since yesterday, his man had increased his total of promised votes to 580, nine votes short of a majority.
The Massachusetts decision to go for Senator Truman on the first ballot was the best of news for the Missourian. This was one of the largest blocs of votes that had been uncommitted on the first ballot.
The President accepted his fourth-term renomination last night after a routine process of afternoon balloting. The score was:
| Roosevelt | 1086 |
| Byrd | 89 |
| Farley | 1 |
The surprised delegates learned, as the President talked, that his radio speech was being made from a West Coast naval station. They will be more surprised to read in the papers today that the President passed through Chicago last Saturday and conferred with Chairman Robert E. Hannegan of the National Committee.
The President directly answered the campaign charge of New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, the Republican presidential nominee, that he and his administration are tired and quarrelsome old men.
He told the jam-packed stadium crowd:
The people of the United States will decide this fall whether they wish to turn over this 1944 job – this worldwide job – to the inexperienced and immature hands, to those who opposed Lend-Lease and international cooperation against the forces of aggression and tyranny, until they could read the polls of popular sentiment; or whether they wish to leave it to those who saw the danger from abroad, who met it head-on, and who now have seized the offensive and carried the war to its present stages of success, to those who, by international conferences and united action have begun to build that kind of common understanding and cooperative experience which will be so necessary in the world to come.
Mr. Roosevelt said the “1944 job” was to win the war fast and overpoweringly, to form international worldwide organizations including provision for the use of armed force to prevent war, and to build an adequate national economy for returning veterans and all Americans. He said his administration had been working on all of those projects.
President is calm
Not long before he spoke, his great ideological adversary, Hitler, was telling a startled world that some of his army officers had been tossing bombs at him. The Hitler speech was a substantial background for the President’s sure confidence in victory.
But the President’s voice was the only calm note around this convention. The left-right wing contestants are set for battle and have begun to slug. Mr. Hannegan talked to President Roosevelt by telephone from the Blackstone Hotel in midafternoon yesterday and subsequently summoned an evening press conference at which he made public the document which has come to be known here as “The Letter.” It was short and to the point, dated from Washington on July 19:
Dear Bob:
You have written me about Harry Truman and Bill Douglas. I should, of course, be very glad to run with either of them and believe that either one of them would bring real strength to the ticket.
Always sincerely,
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
Letters are a mystery
The letter raised a number of unanswered questions, principally as to the time and place it was written. Mr. Roosevelt was not in the White House in Washington on July 19, even though the letter as released by Mr. Hannegan was so dated. Actually, in the early morning of that day, the President was arriving at the West Coast naval station from which he addressed the convention last night.
The thought occurred to some here that he may have written the letter welcoming either Mr. Truman or Justice Douglas as a running mate at the same time and place that he composed another famous letter received here. This other letter was addressed to Senator Samuel D. Jackson (D-IN), permanent convention chairman, and was made public on July 18.
Race issue plank put in platform
Program also calls for ‘peace forces’
By Dean W. Dittmer, United Press staff writer
Chicago, Illinois –
A 1,200-word platform calling for an international alliance of nations “with power to employ armed forces when necessary” to preserve peace, and a mandate to Congress to exert its full powers to protect the right of minorities “to live, develop and vote equally with all citizens” was approved by the Democratic National Convention last night.
The racial equality plank, approved by the Platform and Resolutions Committee over the opposition of Southern states, declared:
We believe that racial and religious minorities have the right to live, develop and vote equally with all citizens and share the rights that are guaranteed by our Constitution. Congress should exert its constitutional powers to protect those rights.
The foreign policy plank pledged this country to join “with the other United Nations in the establishment of an international organization based on the principle of the sovereign equality of all peace-loving states… for the prevention of aggression and the maintenance of international peace and security.”
To enforce the peace, “the nations would maintain adequate forces to meet the needs of preventing war and of making impossible the preparation for war,” and “with power to employ armed forces when necessary to prevent aggression and preserve peace.”
Other planks include:
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Maintenance of an international court for the settlement of disputes between nations.
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Support of the Atlantic Charter and the Four Freedoms and the principles enunciated therein.
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Opening of Palestine to Jewish immigration and for “a free and democratic Jewish commonwealth.”
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Legislation to assure equal pay for equal work for women, and a recommendation for submission of a constitutional amendment on equal rights for women.
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Federal legislation to assure stability of production, employment, prices and distribution in the bituminous coal industry.
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Federal aid to education administered by the states.
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Endorsement of President Roosevelt’s use of water in arid land states for irrigation.
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Non-discriminatory transportation charges and a request for early correction of inequities.
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Enactment of legislation giving fullest self-government to Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, and the eventual statehood of Alaska and Hawaii; and extension of the right of suffrage to residents of the Districts of Columbia.
Post-war program
For post-war programs, the committee recommended:
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Full benefits to servicemen and women with special consideration for disabled, to assure employment and economic security.
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Price guarantees and crop insurance to farmers; parity for agriculture with labor and industry, promotion of success of small independent farmers, aid to home-ownership of family-sized farms, and extension of rural electrification and broader domestic and foreign markets for agricultural products.
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Adequate compensation for workers during demobilization.
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Enactment of additional humanitarian, labor, social and farm legislation as may be needed and repeal of “any law enacted in recent years which has failed to accomplish its purpose.”
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Promotion of small business, and earliest possible release of business from wartime controls.
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Simplification of tax structure and reduction or repeal of wartime taxes as soon as possible.
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Encouragement of risk capital new enterprise and development of natural resources in the West and other parts of the country and reopening of Western gold and saver mines “as soon as manpower is available.”
Race issue raised
Also declaring for a free and untrammeled press, the committee expressed its belief “in the world right of all men to write, send and publish news at uniform communication rates and without interference by governmental or private monopoly and that right should be protected by treaty.”
At the Platform Committee meeting, Southern Democrats, led by former Texas Governor Dan Moody, sought to bring a minority report on the racial equality plank before the convention, but the plan was thwarted when only eight of the necessary 12 states signed the minority report. States signing the report were Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas, Virginia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and South Carolina.
The group sought to add to the committee language a clause reserving the authority to determine “qualifications of their voters and to regulate their public schools and attendance therein” solely in the states “in the absence of a constitutional amendment ceding such powers to the federal government.”
Roosevelt speech broadcast from West Coast naval base
President crosses nation leisurely in special train; stops at Hyde Park and Chicago
By Merriman Smith, United Press staff writer
With President Roosevelt at a Pacific Coast naval base –
President Franklin D. Roosevelt began his formal fourth-term campaign here last night in the heavily armed might of this Navy base in a manner that underlined his plans to seek reelection as a wartime Commander-in-Chief.
Mr. Roosevelt came cross-country by train, traveling in strictest wartime secrecy and broadcasting his acceptance speech to the Chicago Democratic Convention from his special train. He was surrounded only by his top military and naval commanders and, aside from a special train, his leisurely transcontinental trip had none of the usual campaign year trappings.
Wartime security regulations prevent exact description of the President’s whereabouts, but he explained to the convention and a nationwide radio audience in his address that he was at a West Coast naval base “in the performance of my duties under the Constitution.”
His broadcast was made tonight from a spacious railroad car. The President’s microphones were placed on a small table at one end of the car. When he finished his speech, he ran through the highlight passages again for newsreel cameramen.
Because of the secrecy surrounding the trip cross-country, there were no crowds at waystations except a few railroad people.
Members of the President’s party included his wife, Adm. William D. Leahy (chief of staff to the Commander-in-Chief), VAdm. Ross T. McIntire (Mr. Roosevelt’s physician and Surgeon General of the Navy), Maj, Gen, Edwin M. Warson (secretary and military aide), RAdm. Wilson Brown (naval aide), Judge Samuel I. Rosenman (counsel to the President), Elmer Davis (Director of the Office of War Information), and Miss Grace Tully (the President’s private secretary).
White House correspondents for the United Press, Associated Press and International News Service were also with the President.
Fala is a giveaway
As in previous secret wartime trips, Fala, the President’s Scottie, was a dead giveaway. People staring at the train during service stops got the idea quickly when they saw Fala trotting up and down beside the train. At the stop in Chicago, a railroad yard worker said to a member of the President’s party, “If I’m getting nosey, tell me, but isn’t that Fala?” The word spread quickly that Mr. Roosevelt was aboard.
As an added precaution against premature disclosure of the President’s whereabouts, the name of the railroad company was painted off the cars. This is because the train consisted of Baltimore & Ohio equipment and it would have seemed strange to see a B&O train on the West Coast.
It required 30 tons of ice every 24 hours to operate the air conditioning system on the presidential train.
Stops at Chicago
Mr. Roosevelt left Washington July 13 and swung through 16 states at a loafing 30-mile clip, resting and handling a lot of paperwork, including the composition of his address. During the trip he made two major stops – one on July 14 for nine hours at his Hyde Park, New York, home and again in Chicago on July 15 for a few minutes when he saw Robert E. Hannegan, National Democratic Chairman.
While traveling, Mr. Roosevelt remained in constant touch with Washington and probably Mr. Hannegan, too. Special telephones were put aboard his car several times a day.
The President’s activity at this base, aside from working on his speech, included few official engagements. One was inspection of training activities in the vicinity. Mr. Roosevelt arrived here before dawn on July 19 and a cordon of sentries quickly took up positions around the train. Otherwise, there was little to indicate his presence.
For the ferocious patriots –
Half-dead Saipan children amaze Yanks with courage
Filthy little Japs found among dead on island given tender care by Marines
By Keith Miller, North American Newspaper Alliance
…
Patrols stab at Nazi lines on Arno River
Germans bombard port of Livorno
By Reynolds Packard, United Press staff writer
…
Forget own suffering –
Kirkpatrick: Frenchmen weep for the Reds
Nazi bestiality to women bared
By Helen Kirkpatrick
Cherbourg, France –
The unspeakable treatment accorded the Russians by the Germans has left a lasting impression upon all Frenchmen who witnessed it.
One resistance leader here told me:
We’ve had a hard time, but the Russian people have suffered more than any other. We know; we’ve seen.
Plight desperate
The Germans, it seems, brought hundreds of Russian women into Cherbourg to work on the docks and railroads, unloading, digging and building. There were at least 1,000 of them.
Their plight was desperate. They were assigned no living quarters, given no clothing and little food. Some wore only burlap bags. Many dropped dead during the winter. French patriots used to sneak out at night to give them food.
Women used as slaves
The Germans used these Russian women as slaves; armed guards drove them to and from work. Among the last batch to reach here, according to my informant, were a doctor, a pilot in the Red Air Force and a young mother, who carried her one-year-old baby with her to work.
“These women were real martyrs,” said the resistance leader. “Need you ask what we French think of the Germans?”
Small air force stymies Japs
Chennault’s fliers bolster Chinese
By A. T. Steele
…